Claremont resident raises R50, 000 with a lunch to support The Sunflower Fund.
Renay Walker, Ethelene Galgut, Sue Galloway, Lerita van Niekerk and Gaby Oliver at the lunch which raised R50, 000 for The Sunflower Fund.
Claremont resident Ethelene Galgut had so much success arranging a Cuppa for Cansa as a fundraiser at her home two years ago for 20 guests that she decided to do another fundraising event and approached a number of businesses for donations in the form of their products.
This year she decided to dedicate her efforts to raise money for The Sunflower Fund, an essential database resource to track suitable bone marrow donors by arranging a lunch for 30 people.
She asked Tru-Cape Fruit Marketing’s Marketing Director Conrad Fick for support in the form of items for her goodie bags. Conrad remembers: “We received a request from Ethelene where she said she was a great fan of our apples and pears and that she she’d previous purchased a number of our table-top peelers as gifts for friends. What struck us about her request”, he says, “is that she reminded us that she was a loyal customer and then told us about her plans to raise funds to support people with cancer. Because of our longstanding commitment to support Crafts for Cancer, in association with Pink Lady® apples, we agreed to donate 30 apple cutters and corers for her goodie bags.”
“I was overwhelmed by the generosity of businesses like Tru-Cape, restaurants, small business, corporates and brand sponsors”, says Ethelene adding that the healthy menu of cold meat and salads was provided by various restaurants like OSUMO, Mugg & Bean, Foresters Arms, Starlings, the CupCake Lady, Pick ’n Pay, and Karoo Meats along with many others “to whom I am so grateful.”
Ethelene says that she arranged the entire event, lunch for 30 people, over a two month period and was able to donate R50, 000 to The Sunflower Fund.
“The Sunflower Fund educates and registers stem cell donors. They raise funds to cover the recruitment costs to grow an effective, ethnically diverse South African Bone Marrow Registry of healthy, committed donors and have the vision that no one should die because there is no match.”
“The Sunflower Fund CEO Alana James and all the staff at The Sunflower Fund are extremely humbled and eternally grateful for this huge donation of kindness. The monies will pay for 25 new donors to be added to the South African Bone Marrow Register,” ends Sunflower Fund’s Rasheda Van den Hurk.
